9250 East Forest Avenue
Consumers’ Public Service Company, Preuss Furniture Company Warehouse, Cyclone Chemicals Company
This structure’s address includes 9228-9250 East Forest Avenue. The primary address is now 9240 East Forest.
Built in 1929, this structure is tied to a prohibition-era mobster billed as a lieutenant of Chicago’s Al Capone.
Frank “Frankie” Lake led Chicago’s Valley Gang in a neighborhood called Bloody Maxwell alongside Terry Druggan. The Valley Gang’s crimes started smaller in scale, from pickpocketing to armed robbery. As time went on, the crimes got more heinous, and the gang’s money and influence grew.
After prohibition began in 1919, the gang became one of the most successful booze smugglers in the Midwest, funneling the operation through the sale of Near-O, a near-beer product. In 1924, Lake and Druggan were jailed for refusing to divulge information about their business holdings in court. Their stint behind bars wasn’t remotely tough, as they got special treatment thanks to their political connections. After release, the duo were at it again, eventually making a deal with Capone to become allies, offering the men more protection. With that in mind, Frankie Lake retired from the business with millions in his pocket and moved to Detroit.
In March 1929, the Lambrecht-Kelly Co. sold the parcel on the southwest corner of Forest and McClellan, pictured here, for $18,000. In 2025, that’s over $330,000.
Shortly after the sale, the structure pictured here was under construction as the new operations of Frank Lake, a proper businessman. It was completed by 1930 and was home to the Consumers’ Public Service Company, which sold coal, coke, and ice. The operation at the corner of McClellan and East Forest, pictured here, was an ice plant. Likely, it was built with illegal booze money.
Despite going legit, Frankie’s trouble with the law wasn’t over. In June 1930, Lake was arrested by Detectives Dan Shanahan and George Gray. He was held for investigation but released. In August 1931, he pleaded guilty to income tax violations. By December, he informed the feds that he planned to “pay the United States $150,000 in final settlement of income tax liability,” according to the Detroit Free Press. In February 1932, he was sentenced to eighteen months at the Leavenworth Penitentiary for income tax evasion. Druggan was sentenced to two years, though his appearance at the prison was delayed due to health concerns. Lake was released by the fall of 1933, and Druggan was transferred from Leavenworth to a facility in Atlanta before being released in July 1934.
While visiting Chicago for the holidays in December 1933, Lake was again arrested in a coffee shop for an old vagrancy warrant. He spent the night in a jail cell and was released in the morning. By then, he was said to own multiple ice houses in Detroit.
Back in the Motor City, the operation continued to grow. By 1930, the Consumers’ Public Service Company had a baseball team, which, according to an ad in the paper, was the top team in the D.B.F. AAA League. By the mid-1930s, the company had a junior ice hockey team, which played at Art Staff’s Stadium/Skating Rink, located at Davison and Dexter in Northwest Detroit. Considering the plant pictured here was kept at frigid temperatures to maintain the ice, it’s only natural that the team had an ice hockey team.
In addition to the Consumers’ Public Service Company ice business, they had coal and coke yards. The east yard was at 6618 French, less than two miles from the structure pictured here, and the west yard was at 14584 Livernois, near Lyndon Street.
In February 1939, the yard on French Road was robbed by “three armed men, believed by police to be the “shotgun bandits who have terrorized Detroit for the last 60 days,” according to the Detroit Free Press. Armed robbery was still widespread in Detroit in this era.
In 1944, the newspaper did a piece on the ice plant pictured here and its manager, Henry J. Bloom, who had been in his position for nine years. It highlighted the process of making 400-pound ice blocks using galvanized tanks and brine, sawing them into 25-pound pieces, and turning them into snow, pebble, medium, and coarse ice chunks. In August 1944, Detroit was hit with a heat wave, and the company couldn’t produce as much ice because of the heat.
In January 1947, Frank A. Lake, 52-year-old former mobster and bootlegger turned businessman, died in his home in Birming home from a heart attack. I’m not certain if he still owned the Consumers’ Public Service Company or if it still existed at his death. According to the Sanborn Fire Insurance Map in 1951, the structure pictured here was still an ice plant for the company. On the map, it’s noted as Ice Plant No. 3.
In March 1957, the structure was listed in the paper as for sale or lease. It boasted 13,800 square feet and could come with or without ice machinery. By September, the ads in the paper said that the property was a real bargain.
Henry J. Bloom, the former plant manager, went on to work at the Karp Coal & Ice Co. and died in May 1974 at the age of 77.
I’m not certain when, but at some point, this structure became a warehouse for the Preuss Furniture Company. It may have occupied the space after it was for sale in 1957; however, I can’t be sure.
The Preuss Furniture Company was founded in 1907 and was run by Edward and Bruno Preuss. Initially located on East Canfield, the company moved to a new building at 16200 Harper Avenue by 1940. At some point, Arthur J. Preuss, son of Edward Preuss, may have been associated with the business, though he was better known for running Preuss Pharmacy in Detroit. Bruno died in 1978 at 80. I’m unsure when Edward died.
After Preuss left the structure, Cyclone Chemicals Company took over. The business, owned by Ayodele Owe, was incorporated in 1996 at this address. I’m uncertain if they ever did any business here, as it doesn’t appear to have been used for years, and the Preuss name is still on the facade.
The City of Detroit has taken Owe to court three times, twice in a general civil case (2017 and 2020) and once in a housing and real estate case (2023). Around 2021, a large portion of this structure was demolished, including the loading dock on McClellan and part of the two-story section. I’d estimate Owe was taken to court over payment for the city demolishing that part of the building; however, that’s a guess.
Considering the state of this structure, the rest will be demolished in the next few years. It has had a fence around it since at least 2022.
Despite the health of this neighborhood continuing to rise, the area is still struggling to find a use for businesses on Forest, Mack, and Warren. Hopefully, we can figure out how to save more of these structures in the future through adaptive reuse.
